


Horns & Poison

by KaninLeer



Category: Furry (Fandom), Original Work
Genre: Awkward Crush, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 21:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19980727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaninLeer/pseuds/KaninLeer
Summary: Ben was working at the library as usual, when Terrick walks in, his crush.Just a little thing I wrote a while ago and said, "you know what, let's just post it and see what happens."





	Horns & Poison

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little story I wrote a while ago, hope you like it.
> 
> I know I suck at summaries

A light tapping of a keyboard, soft murmurs of conversation, and the occasional turn of a page. These are the usual sounds I would hear inside a library in the middle of the day. Even if the library is on a college campus, the other students are for the most part respectful. There is of course the occasional annoyance, though those are few and far between here.

Inside, I’m busy putting books back on the shelves like I normally do. I enjoy helping the librarians out when I can. Once I was done, I walk over behind the counter where more books were stacked. 

As I’m crouched down to grab some books I hear soft footsteps approaching from behind, looking back I’m met with a smiling face of an old turtle. Her scaled skin is covered in wrinkles, hiding her age from no one. Despite her large shell, she’s still wearing a yellow blouse with a matching top, small glasses rest on the bridge of her nose.

“Oh Ben you’re such a dear,” she smiles at me as she walks by.

I stand with several books in my arms, “Oh, this is nothing Ms. Shery.” My lips tugged at the sides, almost pulling them into a smile. 

She stops walking and turns to me, “Oh nonsense, you’re always in here reading or helping out.” She looks at me with a warm smile.

I look down as red begins to slightly spread across my cheeks, mindful that my antlers don’t knock anything over. My round glasses begin to slide off my face so I quickly push them back up with my brown furred hand.

Just then another voice comes in, “I hope to not be rude Ms Shery, but I think Ben would like to get back to work.”

I look up to a familiar face covered in thick white fur and a set of horns on top of the head. She looks towards me with a smile full of confidence and reassurance.

“Oh, well don’t let me stop you then,” the old librarian begins to walk off once more, “If you need me I’ll be in the back room.”

I release the breath I didn’t know I held as she walks away. I place the books on the counter as I try to relax my breathing.

“You get flustered too easily,” the goat walked up next to me and leans against the counter.

I look over to her with a weak smile, “I’m not that bad, am I?”

She then pulls out her phone, she keeps it hidden as she scrolls through it until she opens something and shows me the screen, “What do you think?”

On her phone is a picture of me with the books in my hands just moments before she walked over. There I see myself standing there holding the small stack of books with Ms. Shery in front of me as I look to the floor with dark green eyes. My snout resting on my chest with a small black nose, I remember that right there all I could smell was the pages of the books. My antlers, normally towering on top of my head, were then directly in front of me.

I look away as the red began to creep up once more, “Please delete that.” I fold my arms on the counter and grab my forearms through my sweater tightly.

She chuckles a little as she does as I ask, “Sometimes you just need a reminder on these things.” She looks at me with the same relaxed smile on her face as I grab the books and walk away from the counter.

Her smile is infectious as I smile along with her, “Do I now?” I reach up and begin to place the books where they belong on the shelves behind the counter.

She turns around and continues to lean on the counter, “Someone’s got to keep you in check.”

I don’t even need to look at her to know the smug look on her face, “Why do you say that?” I begin to struggle with putting books on the top shelf.

I hear a soft cough next to me, turning I see her standing there with a step stool in her hands as she sets it up on the ground. “Thanks Ava,” I step on it and begin putting the last of the books away.

She looks up to me, “You need to stop getting embarrassed so easily.”

I glared down at her, “I know that.”

Her eyes roll as she turns away, “All I’m saying is that you need to step up.”

I get off the step stool and approach the counter for another stack of books, “I think I’m fine.”

Her smile vanishes, “Compliments make you freeze in your tracks and the smallest things turn your face red,” stating this while I step back on the stool. I pause with an outreached hand still holding a book on the shelf.

She gives me a slight nudge on the leg, “You just need to work on yourself, don’t be frightened by literally everything.”

I got off once more and approached the counter to get another book, “And how do you suggest I do that?” I look back to her after the question, behind me I hear the door open and see her gaze follow behind me.

Her lips pulled into a smirk as her voice becomes quiet, “Opportunity will present itself.”

I ignore her statement looking forward to pull the stack onto the counter. The books slam down on the countertop and I freeze looking ahead. 

Walking in front of me is a familiar face covered in sand colored scales with the light gently reflecting off them. His light brown eyes scanning his surroundings with intrigue and relief. His walk is full of confidence, wearing a simple pair of jeans and a light blue long sleeve shirt. His face giving no outward sign of emotion like most reptiles, his tail doesn’t give anything as it stays still behind him.

I keep staring from behind the counter as he walks to the back of the library and begins to look through the shelves.

“Like that.” I jump when Ava speaks next to me and reaches for the stack in front of me.

I look at her full of confusion, “What are you doing?”

She proceeds to slide them across the countertop over to her, “Making sure you don’t back out.”

Realization clicks in my mind, “No!” I barely keep myself from yelling and causing a scene.

She looks to me and smiles once more, “This is exactly my point. You back down and don’t try anything that even remotely worries you.”

I try and grab the stack from her, “Well,” I pause as she holds me back, “I like living that way.”

She grabs my arms and holds them against my body. She then proceeds to turn me around and leans against my ear, “It’s sometimes worth it to take risks.” With that she gives me a light push towards the back of the library.

I look back to find her carrying the stack away from the counter to put the books away. Turning forward, I hang my head in defeat. Taking a deep breath I tentatively walk to the back of the library. The entire time I can feel Ava’s eyes watching me.

I reach the shelves in the back and can see him standing there, his scaled hand resting on one of the shelves. His gaze was focused directly on the books as he seemed to be reading their titles, occasionally he would take one off the shelf and read the back of it before putting it back.

I walk over to the aisle next to it and pretend to be looking at the books on the shelf.

_ What are you doing?  _ I asked myself. My stomach felt as though it was being punched over and over. My face began to feel hot again as my breathing picked up in pace.

_ You’re going to make a fool of yourself  _ Doubt and worry just kept creeping up my back

I started to hyperventilate and tremble as I stood there unable to move.

Then I felt Ava’s gaze once more, I already know what she was thinking and what she would say to me if I just walked back.

Shakingly I took a deep breath and try to pace my breathing, hoping no one saw me almost have a panic attack. Eventually the heat began to dissipate and my body ceased trembling.

I give a soft sigh _You don’t need to do much, just introduce yourself._ With that I began to relax.

I kept telling myself everything would be fine, I don’t need to do much. Finally I felt okay and ready. I walked out of the aisle and moved over to the next one.

I look down to find no one standing in the aisle. I stood there frozen for a second before briskly walking down the aisle all the way to the end. At the end it opened up to go left or right with another bookshelf on the end wall. I look down the right to find no one there, then looking left to a young rabbit with a book but no scales in sight.

Disappointment begins to fill my chest,  _ I wasted this.  _ I had one chance to just talk to him and then I went and blew it. I look down in defeat and turn to walk back to the front, when someone suddenly knocks into me and I fall to the floor.

“Oh my, I’m sorry,” a clearly male voice says as I push myself up onto my arms.

“It’s okay,” I rub my face and find my glasses are gone, “damn it.” I get on my knees and look around to see everything is just colors smeared together.

“Are you okay?” The voice appears again, looking towards it I just see blue moving in front of me.

“Yeah,” I begin to feel around on the ground, “My glasses just fell off.”

I hear a small breath sucked in, “I’m so sorry I was reading this books description and didn’t see where I was going.” Then the blue moves to the ground and begins to move around next to me.

“It’s okay, I’ve walked while reading too,” my voice is as calm as I can make it when I hear a sigh of relief from the voice.

We continue to look on the floor for a few moments in silence. I begin to feel uncomfortable with the silence and think back to what Ava said.

“So uh,” fear begins to try and overtake me, “what book were you looking at?”

He pauses for a second, “I was looking at  The Gallows .”

“By Serena Jen?” I finish for him and stop feeling around.

“Yes,” he begins, shock obvious in his voice, “you’ve read it?”

All fear and worry I had previously about talking to this guy vanishes, “Yes I have and to be honest, kind of a disappointment.”

“Really, why do you say that?” His voice full of intrigue and curiosity.

“The story was pretty predictable from the first chapter,” I start leaning on my right arm and turn my body to face him as I explain. “The whole flow of story just felt really choppy and wasn’t very concise. There wasn’t much drama or emotion showed through the characters and seemed to rely heavily on the feel of the world too much.”

His blur keeps moving as I tell him my thoughts, “Sounds like you have some strong emotions about this one.”

“No don’t get me wrong, I love her work,” I admit proudly.

“Really,” surprise creeps out of his voice once more, “you don’t seem like the type to read horror.”

My lips slide straight into a smirk as I eye this blue blur, “Favorite genre.” I then remember my glasses were on the floor somewhere and continue to look for them, “I would recommend one of her earlier works,  The Raven’s Eye , that’s a good one.”

He gives a soft grunt and see the blur stand up, “Found them.”

“Thanks,” I stand up next to him and hold out my hand for my glasses.

Instead I hear him unfold the glasses and see the blur get closer. He then takes the glasses and puts them on me, taking all the blurs and giving them shape.

As he slides them on I then get to see him and see a face covered in sand colored scales with dark brown eyes looking deeply into mine.

He pulls his hands back, “Can you see?”

I feel myself unable to move, I try to speak and no words come out. I give him a small nod as a familiar hot feeling finds home in my stomach.

“Okay good,” he physically relaxes as his tongue comes out for a second and waves in the air before vanishing into his muzzle. “Thanks for your input on the books,” he takes my hand that is still outstretched and shakes it.

“N-No problem,” I manage to get out. I quickly pull my hand back as his attention turns back to the book in his hands. His scales were so soft and gentle, I rub my hand after the surprising softness.

He turns his attention back to me, “What was your name?”

Once again I’m unable to move and I find myself struggling to speak, “B-Ben.”

“Terrick,” he gives me a friendly nod, “great to meet you Ben but I can’t hang around for too long.” 

“Th-that’s fine, I’m often in the library,” speaking becomes easier though uncertainty begins to take over.

“Cool, I’ll see here again sometime,” he gives me a friendly wave and walks off down the aisles before turning back once more, “Sorry again for running into you.” He vanishes as he walks down one of the aisles.

I stare at where he disappeared around the corner, a childish grin on my face, “It’s okay.”

“So how did go?” Ava’s voice appears behind me causing me to slightly jump.

I scowl at her, “Not cool.”

She leans back raising her hands jokingly in defense, “Just trying to be a good friend here.”

I look back to where he walked down as a smile crept back on my lips, “It was nice.”

“Well that’s good,” her head turns to the direction I’m staring, “It’s not everyday you see a deer crushing on a komodo dragon.”

My cheeks flush with embarrassment at her teasing as I look at the ground holding my left arm with my right, “I owe you for the encouragement.”

She puts a hand on my shoulder, “You don’t owe me anything, what are friends for.” She lifts up my muzzle and smiles brightly at me.

She then plants a hand in between my antlers and begins to rustle my dark brown hair, “Just don’t ditch me for him got it.”

My eyes quickly flare with annoyance at her continuous teasing as she walks away. Just as fast as my anger rose, it dissipates as I trail behind her muttering, “I won’t.”


End file.
